As much as I love taking pictures, this year the odds were against me. I was at work on the first two days of the regionals, leaving the camera off the water for the beginning of the action. I was late to the action on Saturday, as I volunteered to fix the starting dock that somebody tried to use as a spring board. So the results are only glimpses of the action that happened at the regionals event this past week.
Spectators Guide to Eastern Regionals 2010
For the second year in a row, the Eastern Regionals are being held nearly in my back yard, here in Penfield NY. And for the second year in a row, most people in the Rochester area won’t even know about it. While the sport of tournament waterskiing has never been a large spectator event, I wanted to write up a quick guide to this years Eastern Regional Championships, for those who might want to come out to watch.
Where is this happening?
Tucked within the suburbs of Penfield NY is perhaps the most perfectly engineered waterski site in the region. The site location is called Hidden Pass for a reason, as most Penfield residents don’t know that it exists. The site is the private residence of the DiBella’s and the Rudy’s, and typically not accessible by the public. This event however, offers a unique opportunity to go down to Skimore lane and pay witness to some of the best skiers in the country.
If you are looking to find the pond via a map, you can map anywhere to “skimore lane” in Penfield to find it.
When is this happening?
The action starts this Thursday at 8AM Sharp and runs through the weekend. There is an official schedule of events, which we grabbed from the Hidden Pass website.
The events are broken up into age groups, designated by a national classification system. So if you look at this schedule and see M1, M2, M3 that means Men’s 1, Men’s 2 and Men’s. I will explain what that means later.
When the tournament is over for the end of the day, the pond turns into practice rounds for new competitors just arriving. They will ski until the light goes away.
You can access the entire perimeter of the pond itself, which puts you amazingly close to the action. There is a site map on the Hidden Pass website, but there will be plenty of signs to help you navigate to parking areas.
What am I watching?
There are three events to spectate. Tournament Slalom, Tricks and Jumping. Being a slalom skier, I of course have my own biased towards watching that happen, so I will explain some of the basics to slalom skiing.
The boat will drive down the center of the course, while the skier attempts to ski around 6 buoys, making an nice pendulum motion behind the boat if everything goes well. They need to go through the entrance gates and exit gates for the entire run to count. There are points for getting partial of half buoys but you need to complete one full run to make anything count.
The challenge is that the different divisions above have different speed requirements and every time you successfully make a pass, they shorten the rope. The rope has different colors on it, and after a little practice, you learn to spot what the length the skier is running from the shore.
If you are still trying to decipher that schedule up above, this might help. The divisions are broken up by age groups.
- Boys and Girls 1 — 9 years and under
- Boys and Girls 2 — 13 years and under
- Boys and Girls 3 — 17 years and under
- Men and Women 1 — 18-24 years inclusive
- Men and Women 2 — 25-34 years inclusive
- Men and Women 3 — 35-44 years inclusive
- Men and Women 4 — 45-52 years inclusive
- Men and Women 5 — 53-59 years inclusive
- Men and Women 6 — 60-64 years inclusive
- Men and Women 7 — 65-69 years inclusive
- Men and Women 8 — 70-74 years inclusive
- Men and Women 9 — 75-79 years inclusive
- Men and Women 10 — 80-84 years inclusive
- Men and Women 11 — 85 years and over
- Open Men and Women — any age
There is a much larger chart, showing what the minimum speed is based off your age.
The rope length is confusing to many people, as if you ask what somebody is running, they are going to tell you a number OFF. 22 OFF, 28 OFF, 32 OFF, etc. The number represents the amount of feet OFF of a full rope, which is 75′. For references of distance, at 38 OFF, the rope is short of the buoy by 6 inches.
| Loop Color | Meters | Feet | Feet Off |
| Neutral | 23 | 75 | 0 |
| Red | 18.25 | 60 | 15 |
| Orange | 16 | 53 | 22 |
| Yellow | 14.25 | 47 | 28 |
| Green | 13 | 43 | 32 |
| Blue | 12 | 40 | 35 |
| Violet | 11.25 | 37 | 38 |
| Neutral | 10.75 | 35.5 | 39.5 |
| Red | 10.25 | 34 | 41 |
What do I bring?
A folding camp chair, because it get’s tiring watching somebody else to exercise. You will want to bring a few dollars with you, so you can have your own T-Shirt made on site, or pay for some grub throughout the day. Junior Development has a 50/50 raffle going on, and there are a handful of vendors on site. You definitely want to bring a camera and a set of sandals, in case you need to get your feet wet. Though you can’t swim out into the pond while people are skiing and boats are running, putting your feet in the water can help curb the heat.
Where can I find out more information?
The site was setup for participants first, but there is a lot of good information in there.
Here is the 2010 Regionals Guide.
2010 Eastern Region Tournament Guide
This is the entire guidebook for all of the tournaments in the Eastern Region this year. It is valuable however, because it has all of the regulations and rules in it for somebody trying to understand the sport.
Categories: Tournament Coverage
| 
No comments
Enrique Iglesias: A Bet is a Bet!
Enrique Iglesias plans to make good on this one people! Check it out at MSNBC! http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/38257902/ns/today-toyota_concert_series_on_today/
Categories: Uncategorized
| No comments
Enrique Iglesias to Ski Naked?
As a crossover story, this one is pretty good. Any time you can bring naked, singing heartthrobs and soccer into the tiny world of waterskiing, it’s a win-win situation.
If you have not heard already, stuff.co.nz has broken the story that Enrique Iglesias has promised – or threatened, depending on how you look at it – to ski naked in Biscayne Bay if Spain wins the world cup. Now, as any soccer fan knows, there is a good chance that Spain could win the world cup, so there is a good chance Mr. Iglesias will have to put his money where his mouth is, and he’s got a lot of money. I guess we should all be happy that it was not his dad, Julio that made the promise. Either way, someone is going to be sore.
Categories: Uncategorized
| No comments
Waterski fin protection
Anybody who has made an adjustment to the fin on their slalom ski knows how one little move alters the entire
dynamics of the ski. That is why people have gone to great measures to protect their fin when it is not in the water. People have invented all sorts of methods of keeping the fin “ding free” and safe from being bent when in transit or even during shipping. I have seen everything from bubble wrap to sections of PVC tubing to add an extra layer of protection.
While there have even been a few commercial fin protectors in both wood and plastic made, none of them compare to this hand crafted fin protector sculpted by Darrell De Bey and finished by his wife Crystal. Each piece is a unique set of different woods, giving every
protector an identifiable one of kind look that makes it nothing short of gorgeous. A simple stretch cord wraps around the ski and fasten in a keyhole slot on the opposite side.
Darrell and Crystal De Bey make the fin protectors as a hobby and donates the proceeds to John O’Neill’s daughters, as we lost John to a skiing accident in 2009. What they have crafted resembles more like a work of art than something to protect a waterski fin. Compared to the wooden ones available on the retail market, this represents the Ferrari of fin protectors.
You won’t find these fin protectors on a store shelf or on a mail
order website. You need to go to one of the Buoy Bash tournaments in upstate NY to get to the source. Rumor has it they have a limited supply at this years Eastern Regionals at the Hidden Pass site in Penfield NY again.
Categories: From the Dock, Hardware Review
| 1 comment
And So It Begins……
The 2010 season is underway, and what a start. Very warm weather up here in Rochester, NY. Its much easier to ski without a drysuit.
The beginning of the season always conjures up dreams of skiing 20 sets a week and personal bests being shattered, and for the guys who contribute to this site, things are no different. Hopefully, as the summer progresses, we will fill this site with information, pictures, stories and ideas that will help you to reach the goal you have set for yourself this year. If anything, we hope it’s slightly entertaining.
Stop back here for gear reviews, skiing news(from local to world), tournaments and stories. I will be working with the other contributor(s) to get things moving over the next couple of weeks. Steve has already promised some revamp of the forums section if the guy ever finds the time. It’s a wonder he finds time to sleep…oh yeah, he doesn’t sleep.
Categories: From the Dock
| No comments
Winter Water Skiing and Ice Breaking
I am convinced that I need to drive up to see these guys whenever I complain that nobody is skiing.
Categories: Uncategorized
| No comments
Hibernation Killed my Website
Hibernation away from Waterskiing in Upstate NY is a painful thing. While the entire planet has not stopped skiing on a regular basis, it is sometimes easier to push the concept of your favorite past time as far away as possible, knowing you won’t see it for a long cold winter.
Regardless, I apologize. There is no excuse for the site going quiet, except that I have been the only one adding content. The answer to the big question is YES, this site will be active again.
The Forums
That area needs to die, and become an actual forum. The built in plugin for WordPress filled the site with so many bogus logins and spam services, that I spent a good couple days cleaning out the mess. It should, and will remain a separate entity, so that it does not impact the usability of this site.
Categories: Uncategorized
| No comments
Hydrofoil Record (826 Flips/hr)
I have a good friend who has transitioned his time away from the slalom ski over to the hydrofoil. While I constantly refer to the sport as the retirement option for skiers, calling it a rocking chair instead of an air chair, there are people out there set to prove me wrong regarding it’s position in the sport.
This week we saw the record being broken for the most consecutive flips in a one hour span on a hydrofoil. I am not sure I can quite comprehend what it means to flip 826 times in one hour, but Geno Yauchler has set a new record, shattering the record set only in 2008 by Greg Gill who had 529 flips.
While I do want to point out that the fact that anybody could physically do that within an hour, obviously makes it less demanding on the body than slalom skiing, it was a damn impressive display of which I get dizzy thinking about.
Categories: Uncategorized
| 2 comments
The lost scrolls of the HO Monza
Last winter, I bought a 2007 closeout HO Monza waterski as my transition from a HO Magnum into something resembling a tournament ski. It was the largest ski I could buy at the best price, and the purchase decision doesn’t really get much deeper than that.
Little did I realize how painful it would be finding the setup information for the ski. This year I had a close friend who bought the 2008 HO Monza, also without any information about it. My quest was put forth to find the fin settings and information regarding how to get the ski back to the original factory settings. Easier said than done apparently as the lack of information available online has been painful.
The HO website has the “current” ski setup guide, represented in a chart, which is really a picture on their website. Let me complain about that for a sentence or two. One would anticipate that having the fin settings for this years Monza would be the same for all the model years, but they are not. The HO website is one big graphical sales pitch, none of which gives me an ounce of information that I can use to get my ski setup. Psssst, how about you let the customer service department show up to the table on the next version of the website, instead of only the sales team. The nerd in me is a little upset that there is an image file representing the setup chart. Putting it into an image, instead of text or even a PDF document, keeps it off of the search engines, again making the effort to find the information nothing but painful.
I figured out that HO WaterSkis was on Twitter, so I sent them a Tweet, asking for a link to the documents. I was impressed because they responded, asking me to send them a DM (Direct Message) with my email address. 
I replied back and said I can’t send them a DM, unless they unlock that ability in their security settings, or actually follow me in Twitter. I actually tried to send a direct message a few times, until I realize it was failing.
While I never heard back from them, after that tweet, I sent an email a couple weeks later asking again for the information. I am still waiting to get any information out of HO, but I do have a positive spin on an otherwise failed customer service story.
I now have in my possession a copy of a copy of the original owners manual that was supposed to come with my 2007 Monza. At least I think it was the 2007, manual, but there are no dates. The information in the Quick Setup guide and information in the pamphlet I was supposed to receive, is actually REALLY useful. It goes over the basics of fin adjustments, how adding or removing fin depth can affect either side of your position in the water, and even how to measure the settings. Why they don’t want this information to be out there to the world, I have no idea. I will work on scanning it in, as these are just photos I took from the iPhone. At least you can read them. which is more than you get online with HO.
The final twist in this tale is the last page of information where it tells you to go to hosports.com or hosyndicate.com for more information.
While you already know that going to www.hosports.com will give you the information for the current ski only. What you do not know is that I can guarantee you that going to www.hosyndicate.com will not give you ANY information and never will. You see, I own that domain. After I went there, found a dead site that wasn’t registered, I bought the domain name. While it would be too easy for ME to start posting information on HOSyndicate.com, I think I would rather leave it dead or perhaps raffle it off to the highest bidder who can send me a ski with an owners manual.
Categories: From the Dock, Hardware Review
| No comments
